Reality: Out of the top 11 donors, four typically donate to Democrats, three donate to people across the political spectrum, one has never donated before, and three primarily donate to Republicans. The three Republican donors also donated to Kennedy when he was running as a democrat.
According to a Politico article in March of 2024, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential bid is largely powered by a wave of new donors who aren’t political — or at least haven’t been in years.”
They go on to say, “Roughly 21,000 donors have given Kennedy’s campaign at least $200 since he declared his independent run in October, and a POLITICO analysis found that 74 percent of them did not make any political donations during the 2020 cycle.”
Methodology: Keep in mind campaigns can only accept $6,600 per person. political PACs can accept unlimited amounts. Campaigns and PACs cannot coordinate. In this article, we will be examining the top 11 donors of the PAC, American Values 2024.
This information came directly from the FEC.gov, the official campaign reporting website. I then took the top 11 donors and looked through their previous giving history on OpenSecrets.org. Finally, I performed searches by each person’s name to find background on the person.
Top 11 Donors
1. Timothy Mellon
Total Donation: $25,003,300
Background: Timothy Mellon, often referred to as “Trump’s biggest donor,” is also the largest donor to RFK Jr.’s PAC. While this connection might suggest a strong MAGA influence, Mellon’s donation history is more complex. Learn more about Mellon here.
Political Donations: Mellon has donated primarily to Republican candidates but has also donated to Democratic candidates, including Tulsi Gabbard and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). He also donated to Kennedy while he was running as a Democrat.
Policy Interests: Mellon is particularly interested in border security. He has donated over $50 million to Texas and millions more to Arizona specifically to support the construction of a border wall. This priority aligns with candidates from both parties who advocate for stronger border policies, explaining his support for RFK Jr.
2. Gavin de Becker
Total Donation: $14,000,000
Background: Gavin de Becker is a security expert and author known for his work in threat assessment and personal security. He provides security protection for RFK Jr., and they work closely together. He was featured in the ‘Who is Bobby Kennedy‘ documentary.
Political Donations: De Becker has donated to various political parties in the past, but never at the volume he has for RFK Jr. His previous donations have been more modest, indicating a significant step up in his support for RFK Jr.’s campaign. Donation History.
3. Nicole Shanahan / Planeta Management LLC
Total Donation: $4,000,000
Background: Nicole Shanahan is a philanthropist and legal tech entrepreneur. She is Kennedy’s VP pick. Before being picked as VP, she gave 4 million to the PAC supporting RFK Jr. Learn more about her here.
Political Donations: Shanahan used to donate to Democrats. Before her donations to Kennedy, her last donation was in 2020 to the DNC.
4. Mark Gorton
Total Donation: $1,000,000
Background: Mark Gorton is an entrepreneur and founder of the open-source software company LimeWire.
Political Donations: Gorton has donated to primarily Democrats in the past and some independents. View his giving here.
5. Leila Centner
Total Donation: $1,000,000
Background: Leila Centner is an entrepreneur and co-founder of the Centner Academy. Centner Academy is described as “a progressive independent ‘happiness’ school.”
Political Donations: Centner has donated to mainly Republicans, but also some Democrats in the past. She donated to the PAC when Kennedy was running as a Democrat.
6. Michael Colby
Total Donation: $500,000
Background: Michael Colby is the Principal of Colby Family Office.
Political Donations: There are many donors with the same name. I believe I was able to narrow it down to the correct person. If I am correct, Michael has donated to one Democrat in addition to Kennedy. View the records here.
7. Jeff Hays
Total Donation: $410,000
Background: Jeff Hays is a filmmaker and producer.
Political Donations: Hays’ donation history shows a bipartisan pattern, supporting both Joe Biden (2019) and Ron DeSantis (2022) before contributing to Kennedy.
8. Robert Bishop
Total Donation: $335,000
Background: Bishop was a hedge fund manager of Impala Asset Manager. The firm closed in 2022.
Political Donations: Robert Bishop has mainly donated to Republicans except for one person, Joe Kennedy III, who currently works for the Biden Administration and has endorsed Biden. Interestingly, Bishop also donated to Kennedy while he was running as a Democrat. Donation History.
9. Daniel Thropp
Total Donation: $260,000
Background: In 2012, he was deemed insane by a court and sentenced to a psychiatric hospital.
Political Donations: This is his first political donation.
10. Chris Rufer
Total Donation: $250,000
Background: Rufer owns The Morning Star Company which is a tomato packing company.
Political Donations: Rufer has a long history of donating to candidates. He appears to give about evenly to Republicans and Libertarians.
11. Abby Rockefeller
Total Donation: $250,000
Background: I believe this is the daughter of John D. Rockefeller Jr. She was very involved in philanthropy her whole life. She spent her life staying out of the public eye. She is now retired.
Political Donations: Rockefeller has a long history of giving to Democrats in small increments ($6,000 or less).
Conclusion
The claim that RFK Jr. is only funded by MAGA supporters is simply not true. While Timothy Mellon, a prominent republican donor, is indeed the largest contributor to RFK Jr.’s super PAC, the overall donor base for American Values 2024 is much more diverse.
The majority of the top donors have varied political histories, with a pretty even split of donating to republicans, democrats, or both. This diversity is expected with an independent candidate whose goal is to bring people together from all sides of the aisle.
